Matt Tomkins Earns First Win With AHL Syracuse Crunch

Matt Tomkins made his Syracuse debut last night.

Matt Tomkins earned his first win with the Syracuse Crunch last night. This marks his first AHL win since May 14, 2021. He stopped 21-of-24 shots and all three shootout attempts. 

Earlier this month, Tomkins garnered national attention when he earned the first win of his NHL career at the age of 29 while filling in for Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.

“They've been amazing the whole way and really pulling for me, so it was really cool to celebrate that one with them,” Tomkins said of his teammates celebrating with him after the win.

“You feel genuine happiness from them and genuine congratulations. It's cool. It's a unique story, for sure. Obviously, all the guys know my path in getting here and I think it made them want it for me that much more, so really, really cool.”

Tomkins was the 32nd goaltender in NHL history to earn his first career win at age 29 or older. His path had many twists and turns before making it to the big stage, 11 years after being drafted in the seventh round of the 2012 NHL Draft.

“He's such a grounded kid. The fact that he's kept his dream alive all these years should be an inspiration for a lot of kids growing up,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Tomkins.

“To see his dream come true, I truly believe it was probably meant to be, the way it played out for him to get to play in the hallowed ground of Montreal. There's no better place to come in as a visiting team and play. To have that under your belt and nobody can ever take it away from you is pretty cool.”

This week Tomkins was put on waivers as a standard procedure to add Vasilevskiy back to the Lightning roster. He cleared and will now get a chance to make an impact with the Syracuse Crunch.